Arana Negra
Raquel Mora Lopez better known by her ring name Arana Negra, is a Mexican Women's wrestler currently competing for APG. Noted for her distinctive tattoos, "biker chic" ring gear, and power wrestling style, Negra has been a staple of LLL and Southwest United States professional wrestling since her debut in 1993. She was formerly head women's trainer at the Instituto de la Pelea Organizada, a school half-owner by her mentor, El Diablo Verde. Early Life Lopez was born into a large family in Ciudad Juarez, in a rented home on the edge of the notoriously violent Campestre neighborhood. Though never officially a gang member, Negra claims that during her childhood she was associated with the gang Los Sombras. However, after he older brother overdosed on cocaine, Lopez vowed to make something of herself and resolved to become a professional wrestler. Mexico City and el Diablo Verde Lopez moved to Mexico City at the age of 14, living with her Aunt and two cousins. It was there that she attended her first live event, where she saw the match that would shape the rest of her professional aspirations: a grudge match between El Diablo Verde and his former protege, Sacco Satanico. As Negra herself put it in an interview many years later: "I was crushing on him pretty hard. He comes out, he's got long black hair, horns on this badass-looking mask, leather jacket all studded with spikes on the shoulders, he's headbanging to Danzig. He kicked ass!" Lopez did some research and found out that Verde was accepting students, but also that he required a fee. Crestfallen, she (by her own admission) turned to selling drugs to raise the money. At the age of 15 she spent three days in jail for threatening a customer’s life over a short payment. As soon as she was released, she sought out Verde and began her training. Verde University Verde University (actually just El Diablo Verde's backyard, where he had a ring set up), was where Lopez got her start in the professional wrestling business. Lopez had always been a large woman, even by wrestling standards, and thus became a perfect student to learn Verde's style of power offense. Verde's style grew from the fact that he remains to this day the largest member of the Alegre Dynasty, at a towering (for the world of Lucha Libre especially) 6'4" tall. Lopez proved to be a natural fit for Professional Wrestling - her size, tough nature, and sneering rock and roll demeanor were evident even from her earlier matches in the mid-1990's. She has been called by various writers to be the spiritual and physical successor to el Diablo Verde, and to this day uses his former finishing move (the "Black Metal Bomb", a carbon copy of Verde's Lucifuge Bomb, down to the devil horns hand sign taunt). LLL Lopez made her ring debut in 1993, at the age of 17, filling in for aging women's veteran Super Spiderwoman when she couldn’t make it. Though the size discrepancy was obvious, no one seemed to really take notice as the masked and bodysuited Lopez worked her way through a fairly boilerplate squash match. But management must have taken notice, and based on this performance and a recommendation from her trainer, she made her re-debut in two months’ time as Arana Negra. The character of Arana Negra, a tough, sarcastic bruiser in leather and spandex, became an immediate hit with fans of the LLL Women's division. Though she never won the Women's Championship, she was instrumental in breaking down many barriers during her time in LLL, including being part of the first intergender Trios match in LLL History. Negra's tenure in LLL came to an abrupt halt in 1999, after she won a number one contender's match for the Women's Championship. This was explained by management as her having a family emergency--the alleged truth is more scandalous, but has never been confirmed. According to most dirtsheets at the time, Negra and Verde, who had been in a relationship for the last 3 years, had broken up two weeks prior to her quitting. After winning her number one contenders match, Negra reportedly came backstage to find Verde canoodling with Poco Sombra, one of her chief rivals in the women's division. According to most writings on the incident, this was a move designed by Verde to get under Negra's skin. In a brawl that took almost 10 other wrestlers to break up, Negra succeeded in knocking out one of Verde's teeth and breaking Sombra's nose, and was dragged out of the locker room screaming "Cono va a morir!!" Independent Promotions Negra spent the next 4 years of her career wrestling in various Independent Promotions in the southwest. These included Texas International Wrestling in El Paso and Sedona Pro in Arizona, where she was a two time tag team champion with partner "The Greco Roman" Poppadapolous Caesar. In 2004 she made the seemingly shocking decision to sign on with Instituto de la Pelea Organizada as the head women's trainer (ironically, after the original Super Spiderwoman retired and moved to Florida). Apparently having buried whatever hatchet she had with El Diablo Verde (the school's part-owner), Negra split her time between the training school and Cross-City Wrestling, a New Mexico based promotion. USA Despite her success in CCW, this did not translate when she made two appearances in USA in 2009. Many have pointed to her repackaging as "More to Love" Bumpy Sanchez, which was described in most reports as a "bumbling, lusty, plus sized wench," as a reason for her failing to become a fan favorite. Negra apparently hated the idea, and she severed her ties with the company quickly. Asociación de Panamanian Grappling IPO signed an agreement with the APG in 2010, after a meeting between Verde, El Tandy, and Manuel Obando at a bar in Tijuana. As part of this agreement, APG absorbed a number of IPO graduates (among them Little Half Dead) as competitors, and two trainers (Mitad Dyna-Mite and Arana Negra). Negra specifically was requested to help with not only fleshing out the growing APG Women's division, but also to help with training most of the female workers. Negra made her debut recently, as hired security for Susana Gomez. She has struck out on her own recently. In wrestling *'Nicknames' ** *'Finishing Moves' **"Black Metal Bomb" (Razor’s Edge) *'Entrance Themes' **"I Luciferi" by Danzig